4.1.3 Channel Three (Heavy)
This channel is voiced for highly articulate single note lines or for very heavy and massive
rhythm guitar. Due to its slight midrange accent and very high gain structure, it possesses
good punch and will, with ease and authority, rule any stage or studio. The “less is often
more” rule applies here also.
4.1.4 Channel 4 (Lead or heavy riffing)
This channel either is suitable for lead and soloing with the gainpot between 11 and 12
o’clock, while further increase of it will give you monstrous distortion for the heaviest riffing.
4.2 Pre-amp Tubes
The pre-amps are equipped with 12AX7 tubes in all positions. The pre-amp tubes are not
used to make big power, but merely as pre-amplifiers. Therefore their life expectancy is
much higher than that of the power amplifier tubes.
This is not to undermine their utter importance in overall sound and response of the
amplifier. Also, many nuisance defects like crackling noises and low dynamics are directly
related to defective pre-amp tubes. Like all other tubes, 12AX7 tubes come in many
different gain stages, and offer a wide variety of tonal behavior. Our choice for production
was made to ensure a wide variety of tones, with low noise and, hopefully, excellent
reliability.
4.3 Microphonics and Bad Noises
The overall performance of pre-amp tubes is easily influenced by mechanical factors from
the outside. This would manifest itself by a sudden feedback sound with high pitch. The
input stage is especially suspect to this phenomenon. If one encounters microphonic tube
behavior, then the first tube should be checked as a rule. Pre-Amplifier tubes can also cause
hum or other bad noises, like crackling or ticking.
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